In Aventura, you’ll get a ticket if a traffic camera catches you turning on a red light at 15 miles per hour. In Key Biscayne, the threshold is 25 miles per hour. Over in West Miami, you’ll get cited if you turn at only 10 miles per hour.

That lack of uniformity from city to city violates state law, a Miami judge said this week, a ruling that potentially could lead to the dismissal of thousands of traffic citations and more legal battles over the validity of Florida’s deeply unpopular red-light camera programs.

“How is a driver to know that the guidelines of the [red-light camera programs] vary from municipality to municipality?” Miami-Dade Judge Steven Leifman wrote in his 8-page order ruling against the city of Aventura and its red-light program.